


Lightning Rod

by AliceKumori



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Adult Arcobaleno, Aizawa did NOT sign up for this, All Might fucked up, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Sawada Tsunayoshi, Dadzawa, Female Midoriya Izuku, Flames are NOT quirks, He didn't mean to, It will make sense later, Izuku is Tsuna's Lightning Guardian, Izuku is not in class 1-A, Izuku joins the mafia, Mentions of Attempted Suicide, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Multi, Other, Reborn enjoys heroes suffering, Sort Of, Sort of villainous 10th gen, The 10th gen are ALL problem children, Villain Midoriya Izuku, but it happened, it doesn't actually happen though, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 12:10:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21446008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceKumori/pseuds/AliceKumori
Summary: Her mom was waiting for her when she got home, the TV playing in the background displaying the earlier scene.“Izumi.” Her voice, soft and careful brought her eyes to hers. She gave her a smile, small and tight. “What do you say to a small holiday?”Inko turned in a leave of absence, and two days later they were stepping into her mother’s quiet hometown of Namimori.When Midoriya Izumi was fifteen, she was told she couldn’t be a hero. She didn’t expect to end up joining the mafia instead.(Listen I'm on a KHR Discord and they keep giving me these ideas. Please direct all thanks/blame to them)
Relationships: All eventual, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Tsuna/Tired Exasperation, except that last one
Comments: 33
Kudos: 453





	Lightning Rod

She would like to think that when Kacchan told her to take a swan dive off the roof, he hadn’t meant it. She would like to think that meeting All Might would signify a change in her life. She would like to think that risking herself to save Kacchan had a purpose, that people would see beyond a childish need for validation.

She thought wrong. 

Sitting there as the heroes lectured her, Izumi’s hands clenched tightly.

“You could have gotten hurt.”

“You weren’t equipped to run in there.”

“Leave it to the pros.”

_Leave it to the pros._

_Leave it to the pros…_

_Leave it to the pros?_

Izumi looked up at them, her green eyes dark and disillusioned all at once.

“Well I didn’t see any around.” She said, tried, enraged, humiliated, every negative emotion since she was four bubbling inside and ready to burst. “I only saw a group of cowards letting someone die because they were too afraid to try.”

She didn’t stay to watch their jaws drop, she didn’t bother listening when the voices called back out for her. Izumi turned her back and instead walked away. She refused to let her tears fall here, she had shed enough for her broken dream, she would waste no more on them in this lifetime. 

Her mom was waiting for her when she got home, the TV playing in the background displaying the earlier scene.

“Izumi.” Her voice, soft and careful brought her eyes to hers. She gave her a smile, small and tight. “What do you say to a small holiday?”

Inko turned in a leave of absence, and two days later they were stepping into her mother’s quiet hometown of Namimori.

When Midoriya Izumi was fifteen, she was told she couldn’t be a hero. She didn’t expect to end up joining the mafia instead.

* * *

Namimori was small, quiet, and remarkably… unremarkable.

Izumi sighed as she walked through the streets, her tired eyes roaming over the houses and small stores. All of them quiet or barely busy even as the sun was high in the morning sky. 

_“You’ll like Namimori Izumi, it’s quiet and peaceful_.” Her mother had said. Apparently, many of the people here were actually either the increasingly rare quirkless or possessed what could be described as non-flashy weak quirks, color enhancement, an extra set of eyes, things like that.

Most would believe this would put them in danger, but apparently when you were a town of nobodies’ villains didn’t deem you worth their time.

Something about that mental sentence made Izumi glare as she kicked a pebble, her mind flashing back to the events a few days ago. All Might on the rooftop, telling her she couldn’t be a hero-

_“Consider what could be realistic-”_

The heroes at the scene of the sludge monster

_“You weren’t equipped to handle something like that.”_

Her fists clenched. Was that really all she had to look forward to in life?

Being treated like a glass figurine? Handled with kiddie gloves and seen as a delicate person who had the misfortune of being born with a defective gene?

Her head filled with similar thoughts as her feet lead her down the unfamiliar roads, only pausing when they came to a wrought iron gate, the looming building of a school casting a shadow over her.

“Namimori middle…” She whispered out reading the faded sign in the front. “Mom went here.” The grounds were empty due to it being a Sunday, and yet the gates were open.

“There must be clubs practicing today.” She muttered to herself. Slowly she took a step forward, carefully as if trespassing would spawn an unholy demon to punish her. When nothing happened, she took a step inside, surely some harmless exploration would be okay. Right?

She just needed some time to herself.

_Her feet found the stairs_

She just wanted to sort out her thoughts.

_She passed the second floor_

Everything that had happened those few days were catching up.

_The roof was unlocked_

And she didn’t know how to handle it.

_It was cold and empty_

She couldn’t be a hero.

_The fence was easy to climb_

She couldn’t help without being scolded.

_The ground looked welcoming below_

All Might himself had told her to give up.

“_I__f you wanna be a hero that badly, there's a quick way to do it.”_

Her body paused._“_

_"Believe that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life and take a dive off the roof!”_

Her foot moved forward-

And a hand landed on her shoulder, firm and warm, and Izumi gasped. The ground swam before her eyes, so much father than it had been a moment before, as the jingle of the metal fence behind her sent her pulse racing.

“There are better ways to get a view of the town.” A voice said.

Izumi swallowed, hard. “I-” Her mouth tasted like cotton, her hands shaking violently.

“I know, try to turn around carefully, I’ll help you back over.” The hand moved to grasp her arm, keeping her steady as she was brought face to face with her soon-to-be savior.

He smiled at her, though there was no joy in his deep brown gaze. Rather, a familiar pain, as if he knew exactly what had brought her here.

“Come on, one foot in front of the other, don’t worry the links are strong the fence was replaced only a couple of years ago.”

She tried to say something, anything.

“N-nice to see that your school keeps up on safety regulations…” She muttered, her voice still trembling heavily.

“They really don’t.” The boy said, gently pulling her over and back to safety. “They just didn’t want another incident like mine to happen.”

_Oh-_

“That’s…” He silenced her by holding his hand out, this time for a different reason. Numbly she took the outstretched offering, gently grasping his hand in her own for a weak shake. 

“I’m Yamamoto Takeshi, would you like to sit and talk?” Just that question, that genuine question from someone who didn’t see a 'quirkless nobody', but a girl in need of someone, anyone who would talk to her, listen to her-

Her knees nearly buckled as she sniffled, bringing her hand up to wipe the tears from her eyes, she had always been a crybaby.

“Y-Yeah,” she choked out “I would.”

* * *

The park was quiet, the odd pedestrian here or there but no one to overhear them. Izumi wrung her hands together, biting her lip as she stared down at her red shoes, and for a moment she could imagine that red to be the same shade as her blood.

Yamamoto didn’t say anything, he just sat back and waited.

“I always wanted to be a hero.” She finally started, her voice soft but unwavering. “I thought they were amazing, I wanted to save people with a smile just like All Might.”

Yamamoto let out a hum, a grin overtaking his face.

“Yeah All Might is pretty cool, I’ve heard a little about him.”

Once just three days ago Izumi would have balked at someone one hearing ‘a little’ about the world’s number one hero. She would have jumped up and pulled out a notebook, animatedly talking to them about his greatest fights and why he was such a role model.

Today was not three days ago.

“When I was four, I was diagnosed as quirkless. My mom and I live in Musutafu.” Musutafu, a.k.a. one of the biggest hero centrals in all of Japan, the location of UA and a shining paragon in the hero community.

“I see, that must have been pretty rough.” Yamamoto leaned back on the bench as he looked up at that sky. “I was born quirkless too, me and all my friends actually. But we were lucky, Namimori never really discriminated against those sorts of things, and if they did our local prefect would be there to bite them to death.”

Izumi didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded vaguely frightening.

“It wasn’t so bad.” Her hands rubbed the multiple small burn scars on her arm. “I always thought I could still try for my dream at least… but three days ago I met All Might after he saved me from a villain attack.”

She let out a sigh and looked up to the sky, a bitter smile taking over her lips.

“He told me it was impossible for a quirkless nobody like me to be a hero and focus on something more in my realm of achievements.” And it had hurt her deeply. “I should have never thought some useless Deku like me could make it… I’m no help to anyone either…”

“So, you decided to walk off the roof?” The blunt tone of the boy next to her caused Izumi to cringe. Hearing him say it like that painted a far less peaceful image in her head than what had been circulating in the heat of the moment.

“I didn’t plan for it…” And damn if that didn’t sound like a poor half-baked excuse. “I-I just-”

“I get it.” He cut her off, and she looked at him in shock. That’s right, he had mentioned…

He gave her a small smile and gestured to the bat next to him.

“I’m on the baseball team at Namimori Middle, mostly recreational now but I used to be pretty serious about it.” She could tell, his muscles were built and lean, probably from years of practice and his fingers when they had grabbed her arm, had been roughed over with callouses.

“Back in my first year of middle school I overworked myself and ended up breaking my arm.” He shifted his position, rubbing the arm in an almost subconscious gesture. “I was pretty stupid back then, I thought that baseball was my only reason to live. The only dream I had going for me.”

Her eyes widened. “So, you…?”

“Yeah.” His fist clenched, eyes closing as if he were taking a moment to relive the scenario.

“Why did you stop?” She whispered. And he opened his eyes, staring at her with a genuine smile.

“Because Tsuna came, he stopped me and convinced me that there was more to life than some game.” He stood up and walked in front of her. “And he was right. Even if that dream is over you can find another one. It’s not fair, and you won’t get over it quickly, but you know a good way to help get you started?”

Izumi looked up at him, her chin tilting upwards as green eyes met brown. She didn’t know who Tsuna was, but from the way he talked about him, they must be important, maybe he gave Yamamoto the same advice he was about to tell her?

“What’s a good way?”

And she watched as that carefree smile twisted a little thinner, a little darker.

He took his bat and swung fast, she barely had time to register any movement before a Katana was pointed at the tip of her nose. The cool sword barely touching the lightly freckled skin before it.

“Run those memories through with a blade, and end them with your dying will.” 


End file.
